Thread by @BoggildLab

1/23 Honored & privileged to have watched Day 1 of the National Dialogues & Action on anti-Black Racism & Black Inclusion in 🇨🇦 Higher Ed. Congratulations to sponsors & organizers for making this happen & for teaching us all who work in academia 🙌👏🔥🙏 utsc.utoronto.ca/nationaldialog…

2/23 👇A thread summarizing Key Insights & Messages for Action that I learned from Day 1, courtesy of super⭐️ panel & plenary speakers Drs. & Profs. Michael Charles, @deanstudentexp, Heather Hines, Alissa Trotz, Dexter Voisin, @MalindaSmith, @ProfWlkr & Mike DeGagne 🙏🙏🔥🙌👏

3/23 Key points re: academic success:
a. Inadequate complaints resolution process w/ frequent dismissal & re-categorization of issues when raised to leaders;
b. Discipline applied unequally;
c. Safe spaces to raise issues w/ leaders fluent in anti-Black racism needed

4/23 d. Leaders need to embrace idea of broken processes that lead to broken outcomes (ie, broken process is tantamount to no process);
e. Notion of "fit" emerged repeatedly (ie, will this person "fit" into our academic culture? whom is fitting into whose agenda & workplace?)

5/23 f. Resistance to dialogue common among leaders; g. Black staff do work of Black inclusion & EDI off sides of their desks w/ little recognition & no compensation (ie, people who stand to benefit from work tasked w/ its execution)
h. Need to publish performance stats re: EDI

6/23 Key points re: faculty access & success:
a. Mis-attribution of under-representation of Black faculty to ‘pipeline' issue alone > enables systemic discrimination w/in academy to persist & removes accountability for change > shifts problem back to Black community (vs racism)

7/23 b. Language of diversity shies away from naming anti-Black racism & Black exclusion;
c. Dearth of mentors for Black faculty;
d. Discounting of Black faculty members’ skills, expertise & value due to tokenism;
e. Work culture that is racist, paternalistic & invisibilizing

8/23 f. Perpetuation of STEM pedigrees (ie, who trained you leads to ongoing self-selection & grant success, invited podium talks, nominations, etc);
g. Black faculty bear disproportionate work of mentoring junior faculty & trainees;
h. Language of reparations can be exclusionary

9/23 i. Lack of institutional accountability or repercussions for overt demonstrations of racism;
j. Model of working w/ rather than at expense of or in competition w/ Indigenous colleagues to be embraced;
k. Cluster hires needed to create safe spaces for Black faculty

10/23 l. Recruitment efforts need to acknowledge & correct deeply exclusionary practices & concepts of what an "ideal" candidate represents (back to the notion of a "good fit" for department, institution). Concept of “fit” decentres Black experience & expertise

11/23 Key points re: Inclusive Decision-making:
a. Organizations must have critical voices at table that challenge status quo & leaders need to hold institutions accountable (very challenging for Black leaders who may not feel empowered to voice dissent & call-out racism)

12/23 b. Normalization of White male leadership & Black exclusion from leadership as default assumption / state of affairs;
c. Targeted opportunity hires that signal institutional commitments (vs. tokenism) need to craft HR language carefully to avoid deficit model thinking

13/23 d. Power of University boards emphasized > they can shape the agenda of the President, VPs, Deans, etc;
e. All organizations move to homeostasis so challenge to sustain pressure that will lead to change (hence need for metrics of accountability & transparency)

14/23 f. Why is it important to have Black expertise in leadership? ie, we *all* benefit from it so need to challenge assumption that Black leaders erode opportunities of or exclude privileged groups (specifically White males)

15/23 Key points re: Student success:
a. Pipeline going back to kindergarten > need to increase positive & aspirational experiences for students;
b. Need more Black students, staff, faculty & leaders across the academy;
c. Need safe spaces for Black students

16/23 d. Financial aid services need to acknowledge & correct that much financial aid is inaccessible or otherwise restricted for Black students, who, due to racism, come from a baseline of income inequality;
e. Intentionality in all that we do required

17/23 Summary Day 1 - aim was for concrete action & outcomes leading to Scarborough National Charter.
Steps were: ID challenges; transform challenges into set of principles; take action; ensure accountability.
4 main themes: history; language; systems; & how change might occur

18/23 Re: History - those doing the work of EDI often surprised at how little literacy exists in Canada re: anti-Black racism & Black exclusion. Concerted efforts needed to raise literacy of BIPOC racial oppression among general public & across the academy

19/23 Re: Language - changing language changes social reality (eg, equity seeking vs. equity deserving); inclusiveness (who is 'including' whom in whose space & reality?)

20/23 Re: Systems - deficit thinking has led to firmly embedded judgments that have directed our processes, systems & institutions into the pillars of racism that they are (ie, "the tyranny of low expectations")

21/23 Re: How Change Might Occur? consultation w/ Black community is usually predetermined, short-lived & disrespectful of actual lived experience > leads to “consultation exhaustion”. Consultation needs to take on more substantive meaning

22/23 Black community needs to be part of decision-making process, which includes governance *and* determination of own metrics of success, inclusion, equity

23/23 Huge thanks to all the incredible panelists, moderators, leaders & sponsors who brought this urgently needed dialogue to fruition. It is incumbent upon us all to listen, engage & act in order to #MoveTheDial. Looking forward to learning more from Day 2 🙏🙏🔥👏👏🙌🙌💯 #EDI

☝️@UofT @UTSC @Carleton_U @deanstudentexp @CUnewsroom @UofTStudentLife @Laurier @UCalgary @uoftmedicine @UofTMed_OID @UofTMDprogram @EIOMcMaster @UofTIMS @UHN @BlackInMicro @AlbertaBMSA @calgarybmsa @bmsacanada @UofTBMSA @BGSA_UofT @thebpao @bapmac_ @BptCommunity @cos_uoft

☝️@blackdocscanada @divadocsbos @KTamirisaMD @hvanspall @DrJenniferCo_Vu @DrMarthaGulati @rajdoc2005 @DrHowardLiu @DrvanTilburg @ASP_MirandaS @Docbasia @arghavan_salles @drlynnwilson @tzakrison @AndreaLConroy @Drhaclarke @drunachukwu @YaneValdezT @DocWoc71 @DrMahaliaD @fitmslax

☝️@CardiacPA1 @wordfinga @drbrowncares @DrLisaRobinson @CurtisSobchak @philoasantemd @SAStrongMD @DrJRMarcelin @OnyeActiveMD @amydjohn @karenerrichetti @uche_blackstock @DrOniBee @DrQuinnCapers4 @ChandyJohnLab @ASTMH @_ISTM_ @linhchen @SarahKohlMD @drsarahmac @DrDebTravelDr

🙏 One final plea to also read the insightful & pointed article by the phenomenal Dr. @uche_blackstock on why she left academic medicine:
statnews.com/2020/01/16/bla…